Goa’s traditional coastal community, who risked the ominous possibility of their dwellings getting axed, will now have a much awaited cloak of protection.
The new Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 2011, was formally notified on Friday bringing it in force, replacing the 1991 CRZ notification, after 18-month-long process of consultations and expert reviews.
The new notification does not mean condoning or regularising violations of the 1991 CRZ notification, barring cases of fishermen families.
The notification states that the dwellings of the traditional coastal communities including fisherfolk, tribals which were permissible under CRZ notification 1991, but which have not obtained formal approval from the concerned authorities shall be regularised if they have not been used for any commercial activity or sold or transferred out of the traditional coastal communities.
Around 8,000 dwellings along the coastline faced the axe of demolition, after a question mark was raised over their existence vis-a-vis CRZ 1991 notification.
What has come to the fishermen’s rescue is the move to reduce “no development zone” to 100 metres from the earlier 200 metres.
The “no development zone” stands reduced from 200 metres from the high-tide line to 100 metres only to meet the increased demand for housing of fishing and other traditional coastal communities.
In a significant announcement, the State government on Friday said, that the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) will settle all the pending issues of the traditional fishermen who were worried, that their structures would be demolished.
“Abundant protection is given to the traditional fishermen community and also traditional dwellers in the notification. All the structures existing before 1991 are protected under the Act,” State Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira.
The minister said that the major relief has come to the fishermen as construction and repair of structures within no development zone (which is 0-200 metres of high tide line) is permitted for existing structures.
As per the notification, government of Goa shall notify the fishing villages wherein all foreshore facilities for fishing and fishery allied activities such as traditional fish processing yards, boat building, net mending, jetties may be permitted by Gram Panchayat in the CRZ area.
The minister said that the State government will take four months to identify the illegal structures, which are constructed after 1991 and four more months to demolish them. “High Court through village panchayats will identify all those structures prior to 1991 and after it…the decision will come accordingly,” he added.
Stating that Goa has been considered as a special case in CRZ 2011, Sequeira said that traditional beach shacks which are constructed during tourism season will also get much needed protection.
“The notification has said that purely temporary and seasonal structures customarily put up between the months of September to May are to be regularised,” he said.
The minister added saying that the eco sensitive low lying areas which are influenced by tidal action known as Khazan land shall be mapped and no development activities will be permitted.
“Also the sand dunes, mangroves, beach stretches along the bays and creeks shall be surveyed and mapped,” he said.
Sequeira said that the protection is also given for the turtle nesting sites on the beaches of Mandrem, Morjim, Galgibag and Agonda.
He said that MoEF has incorporated almost 99 per cent of the suggestions made by Goa government keeping in mind welfare of traditional dwellers. “The notification has taken all peoples into confidence…the demands of the fishing community have almost fulfilled,” Sequeira said.
[Source]
